Category Blogger C0nservative Tree House

May 30 2025

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Contrasts Ridiculous Intervention of Trade Court Against Congressional Approval of President Trump Tariffs


Posted originally on CTH on May 29, 2025 | Sundance

The President of the United States, representing the executive branch, takes aggressive emergency action on tariffs and trade to protect American fiscal sovereignty and solvency.  Both chambers of the U.S. congress, the house and senate representing the Legislative branch, affirm the action through legislative support.  Yet, a single court in the judicial branch intervenes on behalf of multinational corporate interests to block trade policy.

That is the framework of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s main point in a discussion with Fox News Bret Baier.  WATCH:

On the DOGE issue, listen to how a well-versed professional executive with years of experience in institutional reform discusses taking the DOGE team effort and integrating them into his massive agency as part of an operational efficiency overhaul.

Compare Secretary Bessent’s approach to other cabinet officials who have yet to grasp and execute the efficiency model that has been handed to them by the DOGE effort.  The contrast is remarkable.

May 29 2025

Musk Out


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance 

Elon Musk announces the end of his time as a special government employee:

[SOURCE]

Thank you, Elon Musk.

May 29 2025

FBI Director Kash Patel Gives Interview on Fox News to Instill Confidence in FBI Mission


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance 

Two days ago, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino sought to address frustration by promising things in the background were taking place and that is why both he and Director Kash Patel were not making media appearances.

Tonight, FBI Director Kash Patel appears on Fox News to affirm confidence in the FBI.  Tomorrow Deputy Director Dan Bongino will appear on Fox and Friends to do the same.

Director Patel rejects the notion that the FBI is institutionally corrupt and fraught with malicious actors.  Director Patel says he has been sharing information from the FBI silo with “partners in congress” and more information is going to be released. The extensive interview is in two segments, presented below:

.

Segment Two Below:

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May 29 2025

Federal Trade Court Rules President Trump Cannot Initiate Tariffs Under International Emergency Economic Powers Act, All Tariffs Blocked


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance

We all knew the system would strike back. There are trillions at stake.

UPDATES AT BOTTOM: A federal trade court based out of New York has just ruled in a three-judge decision that President Trump does not have the authority within the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to initiate emergency trade tariffs.  [The Ruling is HERE]

WASHINGTON DC – A federal trade court ruled President Trump didn’t have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs on virtually every nation, voiding the levies that have sparked a global trade war and threatened to upend the world economy.

The decision on Wednesday from the Court of International Trade blocked one of the Trump administration’s most audacious assertions of executive power, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, and sets the stage for a possible appeal by the White House.

“The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder,” a three-judge panel wrote. (link)

“The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs,” the court wrote.  The court also ordered that the tariffs that the Trump administration has collected so far be “vacated.”

UPDATE #1: I’m tearing through this ruling right now and I can find several structural flaws in the 3-judge panel decision.

[From Page 6, pdf] “…[…] in 1962, Congress delegated to the President the power to take action to adjust imports when the Secretary of Commerce finds that an “article is being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security.” Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Pub. L. No. 87-794, § 232(b), 76 Stat. 872, 877 (codified as amended at 19 U.S.C. § 1862(c)(1)(A)). This delegation is conditioned upon an investigation and findings by the Secretary of Commerce, and agreement by the President. See id. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, requires that the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) take action, which may include imposing tariffs, where “the rights of the United States under any trade agreement are being denied” or “an act, policy, or practice of a foreign country” is “unjustifiable and burdens or restricts United States commerce.” 19 U.S.C. § 2411(a)(1)(A)–(B). The USTR may impose duties also where the USTR determines that “an act, policy, or practice of a foreign country is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts United States commerce.” Id. § 2411(b)(1). This power is conditioned on extensive procedural requirements including an investigation that culminates in an affirmative finding that another country imposed unfair trade barriers under § 2411(a)(1)(A) or (B) or § 2411(b), and a public notice and comment period. See id. § 2414(b).”… 

I’ve just gotten started, but that citation is just one reason why the ruling can be overturned on appeal.

The Sec 301/302 investigation and process noted above was completed by USTR Jamieson Greer, with extensive citation.  USTR Greer published a 397-page investigative outcome detailing the “unreasonable and discriminatory” burdens to United States commerce. [SEE HERE pdf]

The New York trade court literally ignored the 2025 USTR investigation, AND the 2025 Dept of Commerce review and investigation of the same based on the USTR published findings.  All of those factual investigative findings underpin the Presidential actions taken pursuant to his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

It looks like the trade court didn’t even review the USTR reports.

The USTR link to review all of the legal and trade details on the Trump tariffs IS HERE.

The 397-Page Report is HERE

May 29 2025

Rubio: State Dept Will Begin Revoking Chinese Student Visas


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced (via X) the U.S. State Department will begin revoking the student visas of Chinese nationals, “including those” connected to the Chinese Communist Party:

[SOURCE BACKGROUND]

May 29 2025

Senator Chuck Grassley Declassifies FBI Files on Nellie Ohr, Including Lies Told to Congress


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance

Eight years ago, I created a simple graphic to help readers and researchers understand how Nellie Ohr was connected to the construct of the Steele Dossier, the core source material that underpinned the Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant used against the Donald Trump 2016 campaign and President Trump administration.

In addition to outlining how Nellie Ohr took Ham radio operator classes (May 2016) during her employment with Fusion GPS (began Dec 2015), the graphic shows the circular process of how the Steele Dossier (technically Nellie Ohr’s dossier) was constructed.  Additionally, the graphic is also a timeline showing how Nellie Ohr interacted with the overall ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation, which eventually evolved to the Mueller investigation.

A CTH review of the Nellie Ohr research activity proved Nellie Ohr’s work aligned with the content of the Dossier, and the Nellie research was used as verification of the dossier. [See the release of verification documents (SEE HERE)] In essence the source information for the Dossier was used to validate the dossier conclusions because it’s the same damn material. That’s why Nellie Ohr took the Fusion-GPS header off the top of the material she provided to congress. NOTE: This graphic is almost eight years old.

Nellie Ohr was far more important than Chris Steele.

It was Nellie Ohr’s work product that Steele used in his dossier assembly.

In addition to publicly publishing all of the research material on Nellie Ohr, including how she falsified her testimony to congress, I have personally hand-delivered all of the Nellie Ohr research files to Washington DC, repeatedly, including the FCC License which contradicted her testimony.

Today, Senator Chuck Grassley declassified and released the FBI research files into Nellie Ohr [SEE FILE HERE], proving everything CTH previously asserted in our research.    Chuck Grassley’s press release IS HERE.

[SOURCE]

Notice the Ham radio license (May 2016) corresponds to the timeline when the Clinton campaign officially hired Fusion-GPS as for the Trump “Dossier” research (Ohr training March-April 2016).  Notice also this is immediately after the time when NSA Director Mike Rogers discovered FISA abuse and shut down contractor access to the NSA database (April 2016).

Today, Chuck Grassley notes:

  • In direct contradiction to her congressional testimony, Nellie Ohr took six ham radio classes and an exam during her time as a Fusion GPS employee (pg. 37). Ham radios can facilitate international communication without the use of a cell signal. 
    • Nellie Ohr claimed her ham radio training occurred before she was employed by Fusion GPS. However, per records from the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department and Federal Communications Commission, Nellie Ohr’s entire ham radio training occurred between March to May 2016, while working at Fusion GPS.  [LINK]

When you overlay the timeline with the demonstrable activity, it becomes transparently easy to see exactly what was taking place.

Daniel Jones left the SSCI as Dianne Fienstein’s lead staffer and began working with Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS.  Fusion-GPS contracted with Nellie Ohr in “late 2015”.  This is the exact same time when thousands of unauthorized “contractor searches” were taking place within the NSA/FBI database.  This is where the Ham radio comes in handy to transmit “international communication.”

Nellie Ohr then sends her research outcomes to Chris Steele for the dossier assembly; and the dossier is then laundered back to Bruce Ohr and FBI for use in their operation against the Trump campaign.   Meanwhile Glenn Simpson and Dan Jones are leaking to the media who are writing articles.  Nellie Ohr then captures those articles to validate material in the dossier, puts the citations on a thumb-drive and gives it to Bruce.  Again, it’s the same damn origin.

All of this activity originates back in late 2015 when the FBI was allowing “contractors,” many of whom were likely in contact with journalists -via Dan Jones and Glenn Simpson- to have access to the databases within the NSA.

This is not conspiracy theory, this is a factual conspiracy.

All of the key details are outlined in the newly released 43-PAGE FBI Report on Nellie Ohr.

Grassley Press Release Here

May 29 2025

President Trump Participates in Swearing-In Ceremony for Interim DC Attorney Jeanine Pirro – W/ Media Presser


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance

President Donald Trump participates in the swearing-in ceremony for Interim USAO for the DC office, Jeanine Pirro.  The media question segment begins at 8:45 of the video below and there is a lot of news within the press portion.

The first question surrounds Russia and the recent statements from the Kremlin.  President Trump says he is not able to give opinion on the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the moment and will await approximately two weeks until the “terms” are received from Russia.  President Trump directed attention to Emissary Steve Witkoff who is coordinating with both Russia and Hamas in Gaza on both issues.

When pushed on the terminology being used by himself and the Russians, President Trump deferred larger more detailed opinion.

Regarding the Big Beautiful Bill and the public criticism from Elon Musk, President Trump notes the bill contains some aspects he does not like, but it required some give and take to get through the House.  The Senate priorities may be different from the House priorities and those details are being worked on.  There is “zero democrat support” and that makes things more challenging for Majority Leader Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson.

On the subject of tariffs, President Trump states the negotiations with China and Europe continue with abundant leverage to ensure the best interests of the USA are contained within the results.  As noted by Trump “it takes a number” to begin the discussion and from that point things progress.

Back to Ukraine, President Trump is willing to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Geneva, but “it takes two” and Russian participation is needed in order to get to a ceasefire.  Further discussions with Zelenskyy are possible, but ultimately President Trump needs Vladimir Putin.  As far as sanctions against Russia are concerned, President Trump will only consider them as part of a negotiation point if he reaches the conclusion that no other options are possible.

The second important revelation question surrounds Iran, when President Trump was asked if he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against taking “some sort of [military] actions against Iran.”  President Trump said he would be honest and that yes, he did tell Netanyahu it would be “inappropriate” at this point of the negotiations to attack or do something provocative because he is confident a deal with Iran could be made.  This will make the Israeli lobby very unhappy.

Currently there is a war of influence within the online conservative media space between the influencers who receive funding from Qatar and the influencers who receive funding from Israel.  This is creating division within the base MAGA movement.

May 29 2025

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Announces VISA Restrictions for Foreign Nationals Who Censor American Speech


Posted originally on CTH on May 28, 2025 | Sundance

We have discussed the possibility of President Trump linking liberty and freedom initiatives to trade agreement policy; indeed, there are indications this approach is underway.  Now we see the same approach being applied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as it pertains to visa entry and censorship.

Rubio announces that entities who participate in the censorship of Americans will not be granted entry visas to enter the United States.

The most important aspect to this shift and affirmation is that it’s not our enemies censoring American speech, it’s our allies.  Individuals, entities, organizations and government officials in Great Britain, Europe and even Canada have put restrictions on American speech and threatened legal action therein.

Here’s the official State Dept announcement:

“Free speech is among the most cherished rights we enjoy as Americans. This right, legally enshrined in our constitution, has set us apart as a beacon of freedom around the world.  Even as we take action to reject censorship at home, we see troubling instances of foreign governments and foreign officials picking up the slack.  In some instances, foreign officials have taken flagrant censorship actions against U.S. tech companies and U.S. citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so.

Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States.  It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil.  It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States.  We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech.

This visa restriction policy is pursuant to Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the Secretary of State to render inadmissible any alien whose entry into the Unites States “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”  Certain family members may also be covered by these restrictions.” [SOURCE LINK]

Go Rubio!

May 28 2025

Canada Today


Posted originally on CTH on May 27, 2025 | Sundance 

I’m sorry, but when I finally got around to review the appearance of King Charles in the Canadian Parliament, I could not get past the optics on display.

My background thoughts are HERE, but boy howdy does this picture encapsulate the dynamic.

[VIDEO IS HERE]

And yes, King Charles waxed eloquently in both French and English about the terrible issue that Canadian sovereignty is facing.

The same issue, albeit to a lesser -but increasing- extent, is the core impetus between U.S. President Trump’s manufacturing policies in the USA.  President Trump is urgently attempting to rebuild a collapsed industrial manufacturing base.  However, from the leftist position of Canada, the easier route that affords them the ability to chase the green energy rainbows is to retain a dependency manufacturing model.  These are political decisions.

At the core of this dynamic you will find the reason why President Trump is likely to dissolve the U.S/Mex/Canada (USMCA) trade agreement and instead turn toward two independent bilateral trade agreements between the USA-Mexico and USA-Canada.  Extend this reasonably accurate predictive economic reality to its logical conclusion and you see why the U.K wants to help bolster Canada.

In the battle against President Trump’s economic ferocity, Canada is relying on the friendly, duplicitous and influential mask work by Great Britain.

May 28 2025

Ukraine Presents Draft Proposal, a “Term Sheet” for Ceasefire Discussions


Posted originally on CTH on May 27, 2025 | Sundance

Eventually both sides have to get past the talking points and start putting demands to paper.

According to President Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, Ukraine has put forth a draft proposal outlining their general terms for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.  Now the Trump administration is awaiting a similar draft from the Kremlin.

Once both drafts, what they are calling “term sheets”, are received and reviewed it appears that President Trump will reengage the process and seek to bring both parties to the negotiation table.  At least that looks like the general outline.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, notably an anti-Russia leaning participant in the construct (worked for Mike Pence), appeared on Fox and Friends earlier this morning to discuss the current status of the issues, against the backdrop of President Trump’s frustration.  WATCH:

(Via MSM) – […] “We have received everything we need. The facts are sufficient for action. We do not need any more evidence,” Kellogg said he said on Fox News, speaking about recent developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Following the first direct meeting between Ukraine and Russia since the war started in Istanbul on May 16, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin would draw up a draft proposal listing its conditions for a lasting peace, which is due to be released this week.

Once the White House has both documents they will coordinate between the two sides. According to the Ukraine envoy, another round of talks will happen afterward.

‘There is going to be another meeting, and we believe it will probably be in Geneva,’ he said. Ukraine’s allies want the meeting before the June meeting of the G7 countries in Canada, the newspaper La Repubblica wrote.

Russia wants to return to Turkey for a second round of talks with Ukraine, Lavrov said during a joint press conference in Moscow with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on May 27. Earlier, Lavrov dismissed the idea of holding negotiations at the Vatican as unrealistic.

[…] Kellogg previously served as National Security Adviser to former US Vice President Mike Pence and is currently a prominent voice among Republican foreign policy figures shaping Washington’s stance on Ukraine. Vedomosti reports that his statements reflect a broader shift among US officials towards Ukraine after the White House has been criticized for being too soft on Russia since the ceasefire talks kicked off in Riyadh on February 18. ((more)